There is no fee for business owners interested in signing up, says Franzi Charen, founder of Asheville Grown Business Alliance, which produces the card each year. The only requirement is that locally owned, independent shops honor the card with hand-selected special offers.
German transplants and local Oktoberfest event planners discuss annual celebrations in Asheville and abroad.
Slated to open on Saturday, Sept. 1., the lot will offer 100 new spaces with 24/7 access at $70 per month. Dana Frankel, downtown development specialist with the city, notes that there is currently interest in over 80 of the 100 available spaces.
Friday, May 18, the 30th annual Downtown After 5 concert series launches with an especially localcentric show: Asheville All-Stars, a super-group comprised of a rotating cast of Asheville’s favorite singers and musicians.
The seasonal German-style brews hit the local market and will soon be followed by a trio of Oktoberfest parties.
At the Asheville Downtown Association’s annual State of Downtown luncheon, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer and Buncombe County Commission Chair Brownie Newman touted lists of major public projects and initiatives that benefit downtown. Meanwhile, urban planning consultant Joe Minicozzi argued that tax revenue data show more municipal investment in downtown is both warranted and needed.
The Downtown Holiday Windows Contest, held by the Asheville Downtown Association, features an annual theme: this year’s is “Light up the holidays.”
The festival’s move this year to Pack Square Park is in response to its continually growing popularity with locals and tourists alike.
Nonprofit leaders assume many roles in order to keep their organizations afloat and their mission alive. For most Western North Carolina’s nonprofit leaders it’s a labor of love that has its fair share of challenges and rewards.
One clear winner from the 2015 City Council elections: local hopes for a public space for the city-owned lots facing the Basilica of St. Lawrence and the U.S. Cellular Center. Not so clear: exactly what kind of space Asheville needs and who will pay for it. The city’s Planning and Economic Development committee took up the hot potato issue to try to figure out how to move forward.
“Lesson to be learned: Sometimes it’s better to leave well enough, alone. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — money is the root of all evil!”
The Asheville Downtown Association tried something different at the Wednesday, Oct. 14 Asheville City Council candidate forum. Rather than bringing the candidates up on stage, the forum blended candidates into the audience to interact with and answer questions directly from the voters.
There’s a simple and straightforward theme around this edition’s picks. All four shows are worth paying to see and hear, but all four shows are FREE. And they all start and end at a family-friendly hour.
On Tuesday, Jan. 20, several members of the Asheville Buskers Collective met in the conference room above the French Broad Food Co-op for a post-holiday regroup, aiming to find consensus about what buskers do, who buskers are and whether (and how) enshrining their needs in city ordinances is a realistic possibility. Several weeks after a previous […]
In the years ahead, Asheville Downtown Association Board President Adrian Vassallo wants the nonprofit to help cultivate a “dynamic downtown of innovation, business and opportunity for all,” he says. “Not just a downtown playground for visitors.”
With prospects of a special tax to fund a downtown Business Improvement District unlikely, the board for Asheville’s Downtown Improvement District is officially going dormant. According to a board representative, the members continue to work to accomplish the BID’s goals through other organizations and methods.
A meeting originally scheduled between the Asheville Downtown Association, city of Asheville staff and Council members is now a “downtown summit” in Pack Library at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21, with the public invited to attend and weigh in on the issues affecting the area.
The Asheville Downtown Association will meet with city of Asheville staff and elected officials Oct. 21 to discuss a number of issues that “can no longer be overlooked,” according to an email to its members. The issues include trash, recycling, street sweeping, panhandling, transients, drugs and topless women.
The Asheville Downtown Association has released a video of the presentation Joe Minicozzi gave at the Feb. 20 Mountain Voices Alliance water system forum. The presentation lasts 6 minutes and 19 seconds. Topics include differential water rates, local representation on the Metropolitan Sewerage/Water System Committee, and more.
Two local bluegrass faves warmed up the crowd at a gray and chilly Downtown After 5 on Friday, Sept. 16.
In this week’s Local Matters podcast, freelancer Christopher George talks about the Downtown Heroes celebration, Xpress news editor Margaret Williams talks to reporter Jake Frankel about this week’s Buncombe County Commission meeting, and Xpress food writer Mackensy Lunsford talks about her new project to eat some fairly strange foods in local restaurants.
